Glazed with Love (A McRoll in the REAL World Story)
by ilna
Summary: Kaitlyn and Aaron gain new assistants for their bakeoff. Part 5 of the 6th Annual McRoll in the REAL World Thanksgiving Marathon.


**Notes:** Thanks to Mari and Sammy for their awesome feedback as always!

Readers and REAL McRollers - We are so thrilled by your responses to this new storyline! Thank you so much for the amazing support!

**Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

_Glazed with Love (A McRoll in the REAL World Story)_

"And we slept on air mattresses in the living room!" Joan bubbled to her parents as more family arrived at the beach house for the bakeoff. "Even Uncle Steve and Aunt Catherine! They shared and me and Cousin and Angie shared and DJ slept on the other one and Cammie slept on her bed right by us. And guess what? DJ has a teddy bear! It's so cute, and I showed him Bun and he said she was really soft and I showed him where we had to sew the ear back on. And we had _pancakes_ this morning!"

"Wow," Mary said, grinning at the explosion of words from her daughter. "Sounds like you all had a great time."

"Is this everybody?" Elizabeth asked, looking around.

"I think so," Catherine said.

Jenna nodded. "Casey is picking up Dylan after work, but they should be here for the tasting."

"Then let's get this bakeoff started," Danny said, rubbing his hands together. "It's been a while since you two faced off."

"Yeah, there's been a lot more cooperation than competition the last few years," Aaron conceded, sharing a smile with Kaitlyn. "And while we love cooking and especially baking together, we decided it was time for a little healthy competition again."

Kaitlyn grinned, nodding her agreement. "Since it's Thanksgiving, Aaron and I decided to each find a pie recipe to make and then you can all try them both and decide which you like best."

Jenna exchanged a look with Cody, both smiling at the confidence displayed by the young teen.

"I have a feeling that as with everything you two bake, both are going to be _delicious_," Joseph said.

"Daddy, can I help?" Joan asked, tugging on the pocket of his cargo shorts.

Aaron smiled at her. "Glad you said that, pumpkin." He looked around at the group. "Joan has been helping me perfect my pie recipe at home in preparation for the big event, and when I told Kaitlyn that at the zoo yesterday, she thought DJ might like to help, too."

DJ, pressed against Steve's side, looked surprised. "Me?"

"Yeah, you and Joan could be our assistants," Kaitlyn said. "We even made a little secret trip to the mall yesterday and found these for you." She reached into her bag and pulled out two small aprons and chef hats. "But only if you want to help."

"What do you think, buddy?" Steve asked, putting a reassuring hand on his back.

"Do you want to, DJ?" Joan asked hopefully.

DJ smiled, nodding rapidly. "Yeah."

"Yay!" Joan said, bouncing over and grabbing his hand. "We're gonna be 'ssistants!"

"Yay!" Angie echoed, unsure what was going on but happy that her cousin was excited about something.

"And we found this," Kaitlyn continued, pulling out another apron/hat set.

"Oh my goodness, that's so cute!" Grace said. "For Angie?"

Kaitlyn nodded.

"Angie, look, you can be a baker like Kaitlyn and Aaron," Grace said, helping Kaitlyn display the small apron and hat.

" 'aka ike Kaiwyn Aawon yay!" Angie squealed, clapping excitedly.

"I'm not sure if she'll stay in the kitchen the whole time," Elizabeth said, "but she's going to look adorable in that apron and hat."

"You really think she'll wear the hat?" Catherine said, chuckling.

Elizabeth looked thoughtful. "I think if Joan _and_ DJ are wearing hats, there's at least the possibility …"

* * *

Elizabeth's prediction proved correct. As soon as Joan and DJ put their aprons and hats on, Angie was eager to wear her own.

"It might not last, but at least we got a couple pictures before she remembers she doesn't like anything on her head," Elizabeth said with a laugh before she and the rest of the family left the kitchen to the bakers and their three assistants.

Kaitlyn smoothed down the front of her own apron, yellow with white trim and a monogram. It had been a birthday gift from Elizabeth and Joseph to replace the one they'd given her with her name four years ago that was getting too small. Aaron donned Catherine's blue apron with white stars.

"So I won't feel left out," he quipped.

Joan and DJ giggled, Angie copying them even though she didn't understand the joke.

"All right, shall we get started?" he asked. "I've been very eager to hear what recipe you settled on."

"It was tough to choose," Kaitlyn admitted. "But I finally decided on Snickerdoodle Pie."

"Snickerdoodle!" Joan exclaimed. "I love those cookies!"

"Cookie?" Angie said, swinging her head toward her cousin at the sound of her favorite word and causing her hat to fall over her eyes. She pushed it back up and looked hopefully around the kitchen.

"What are they?" DJ asked.

"They have cinnamon and sugar and they are chewy and delicious!" she told him. "And you know what else? My friend Elsie who goes to my school, she has a dog named Snickerdoodle!"

" 'nickadoo!" Angie said, trying out the new word.

"You're gonna make a pie like that?" DJ asked Kaitlyn.

She nodded. "Yep. And it's really, really good."

"I'll bet it is," Aaron said.

"What recipe did you pick?" Kaitlyn asked him.

"I had a tough time deciding, too," he said. "I almost went with a chocolate peanut butter pie, since that was such a popular combination when we did our cupcake wars. But I wanted to try something different, and something with an island vibe, so I finally picked a Pineapple Pie."

"It's yummy," Joan said, licking her lips in anticipation. She giggled when Angie immediately copied her motion.

"Nummy!"

"I thought you were just teasing when you said that about pineapple yesterday," Kaitlyn said. She grinned. "Uncle Danny's not gonna like that."

"Maybe not. But I bet he at least tries it. Unlike some other people I know when they're faced with something they think they won't like," he said, tickling Joan's sides and causing her to squeal with laughter. Straightening, he smiled at the kids. "So now we know what we're making, let's get to it."

* * *

"I brought a little stool from home," Kaitlyn said, setting it up by the kitchen island. "And I know Uncle Steve and Aunt Catherine have one, too. I used to need it before I was tall enough to reach the counter. I'm tall enough now, but I thought Joan and DJ might want to stand on them."

"Oh, good idea," Aaron said, lifting Joan up onto one of the stools as Kaitlyn set up the other one. "And maybe Angie can …"

Before he could make a suggestion, Angie ran toward the living room, her hat flying off behind her. "Cammie! Go be so wi' Mommy!"

Aaron chuckled. "The toddler attention span." He tickled Joan's side. "You were the same way, pumpkin. She'll be back." He helped DJ climb onto the other stool and pulled out his phone to pull up the recipe he'd selected.

Across the island, Kaitlyn opened her recipe book to a page near the end and placed it next to her supplies.

"Hey, that looks familiar," Aaron said, nodding to the pink book.

Smiling, she held it up to show the cover with "Kaitlyn's Recipes" printed on the front. "It's the one you and Mary and Joan gave me when I was nine," she confirmed. "It's pretty much filled up."

"We'll have to see if we can do something about that," he said with a wink.

"We got you that book?" Joan asked, interested.

"We sure did," Aaron said. "After our first bakeoff I knew Kaitlyn was going to need a place to put all the amazing recipes she came up with, so we made her that book with lots of blank pages. And now she's filled it all up!"

"You made all the foods in that book?" DJ asked, eyes wide.

"Yep!" Kaitlyn said proudly. "Mostly desserts but some regular food, too. Especially after I became a vegetarian."

"Kaitlyn makes really yummy desserts," Joan told DJ. " 'specially cupcakes."

DJ looked over at Kaitlyn excitedly. "You do?"

"She does," Aaron agreed. "But today, it's all about the pie."

Joan giggled. "All about the pie," she echoed.

"So, you're gonna help me, pumpkin?" he asked. "Like at home?"

Joan bit her lip, glancing over at Kaitlyn. "Um, can I help Kaitlyn with the Snickerdoodle Pie?" she asked hopefully.

Aaron gaped with exaggerated surprise. "What?"

"Well, I helped you before. I never helped Kaitlyn."

He smiled easily. "Of course you can, honey. That is, if it's all right with Master Kaitlyn?"

Kaitlyn smiled broadly. "Definitely. I'd love it."

"And hopefully DJ will help me?"

DJ's eyes brightened instantly. "Yeah!"

"Okay, then let's scoot you over here," he said, carefully pulling DJ's stool to his side of the island as the young boy laughed, holding the counter's edge for balance.

Joan hopped off her own stool and pushed it over by Kaitlyn.

"Now, before we start," Kaitlyn said, "you've gotta learn the most important thing about baking _and_ about bakeoffs."

"What?" Joan and DJ both asked eagerly.

"The most important thing is that we have fun."

Aaron smiled, remembering how he'd told Kaitlyn that at their first competition four years ago. "That's exactly right."

* * *

"Okay, we got our cream cheese mixture just about ready," Aaron said to DJ. "Let me see if the pineapple is boiling." He went over to the stove where a small saucepan with crushed pineapple, cornstarch, and sugar was just starting to boil. "All right, excellent. I'll stir this while you keep stirring the cream cheese."

DJ nodded, concentrating on carefully stirring the bowl of softened cream cheese, sugar, eggs, salt, milk, and vanilla extract without spilling any.

"Great job," Aaron said.

"Okay, Joan, pour the milk in," Kaitlyn said, nodding to the measuring cup half full with milk.

"Two hands, pumpkin," Aaron called out as he stirred at the stove.

Joan carefully lifted the measuring cup and poured the liquid into the large bowl full of other ingredients. Kaitlyn lowered a hand mixer in.

"This is a little loud," she warned the younger children, and turned it on.

At the sound of the mixer, Angie ran into the kitchen to see what was going on.

"Kai'wyn, w'at do?" she asked.

"I'm mixing!" Kaitlyn called over the sound.

Angie clapped excitedly and ran back into the living room to report "Kai'wyn misin'!" to the others who were playing various games as they waited for the delicious results of the bakeoff.

"That wasn't too loud," DJ said after Kaitlyn turned off the mixer.

"Not too loud," she agreed.

"Ready to combine ours?" Aaron asked, bringing the saucepan over to the island.

DJ nodded. Aaron slowly poured the pineapple mixture into two prepared pie shells.

"Now we put the cream cheese on top," he said after depositing the pan in the sink to be washed. "Hold on to that spoon, we'll need it to scrape every last drop out of the bowl." He picked up the bowl and poured the cream cheese mixture on top of both pies. "Okay, scrape what you can. There you go." He smiled at DJ who used his stirring spoon to get as much of the mixture out of the bowl as he could.

Across the island, Kaitlyn and Joan were doing the same. "Now, for the special touch," Kaitlyn said, setting down the bowl. "A little extra cinnamon on top." She handed Joan the container. "Go ahead. Sprinkle it on."

"Me?" Joan asked excitedly. She tipped the jar, surprised when a bunch of cinnamon dropped onto one of their pies. "Uh oh."

Kaitlyn laughed. "It's okay. That part will be Jacob's. He loves cinnamon."

The rest of the cinnamon came out more evenly, and all the pies were now ready to go in the double ovens.

"What do we do now?" Joan asked after all four pies were safely in the oven.

"Now you and I have a cream cheese glaze to make," Kaitlyn told her.

"Ooh, a glaze," Aaron said, impressed. "I like the sound of that."

"What about us?" DJ asked. "Do we have a glaze? And … what's a glaze?"

Aaron chuckled. "A glaze is kind of like an icing that goes on top of a cake or pie or other food. It's usually sweet and _always_ delicious."

DJ straightened excitedly at the thought.

"Our recipe doesn't call for a glaze …" Aaron began. He noted how DJ's shoulders drooped, and he smiled. "But what do you say we make one anyway?"

DJ beamed. "Yeah!"

"You can use our recipe," Kaitlyn offered. "It's pretty easy. Just cream cheese, powdered sugar, and milk."

"Perfect," Aaron said. He smiled. "Thanks, Kaitlyn."

"Competition is always better when both teams bring their A-games," she said.

"That sounds like something Uncle Steve would say," he said.

She grinned. "He does."

Aaron laughed. "Of course. Well, let's get glazing, then."

* * *

By the time the pies were out of the oven, cooled, and glazed, more family had arrived for the tasting.

"Wow," Kaitlyn said, looking around at the large group assembled on the deck for the big reveal. She glanced over at Aaron. "It's a good thing we both made two pies."

"You're right about that," he agreed.

"Let's see 'em!" Jacob said excitedly.

"See 'em!" Angie echoed, bouncing in Mary's lap.

"Okay, our very helpful assistants are going to unveil the pies," Aaron said. "First, Kaitlyn and Joan."

Grinning a mile wide, Joan whipped off the kitchen towel covering their pies. "Ta da!"

"Ta da!" Angie immediately repeated, beaming at the use of one of her favorite phrases.

"Snickerdoodle Pie!" Joan announced.

"Oh, that looks _and_ _smells_ delicious," Ang said.

"I second that," Deb agreed.

"And from Aaron and DJ …" Kaitlyn said, gesturing to them.

"Go ahead," Aaron said, smiling encouragingly at DJ.

DJ lifted the towel off of their pies more carefully.

"Ta da!" Angie helpfully supplied, causing everyone to laugh.

"Tell them what we made, DJ," Aaron said.

"It's Pineapple Pie," he said, his voice quiet but firm.

"It looks great, buddy," Steve said.

"It certainly does," Joseph agreed.

"Hey, that glaze is new," Mary observed.

"Yep," Aaron confirmed. "Kaitlyn very graciously offered to let us use their glaze recipe to add to our pie."

"That was really nice, honey," Jenna said, smiling at her ever-thoughtful daughter.

"Because glaze makes it better!" Joan said.

"Hope so," Aaron said.

"Well, these both look so good," Catherine said. "Let's serve them up and see how good they _taste_." She and Elizabeth, with help from Grace and Jenna, cut up the pies and put a small piece of each on plates for everyone. Jacob and Dylan helped pass the plates out while Joan and DJ distributed forks all around.

"Okay, everyone," Elizabeth said. "Three, two, one, taste."

At that signal, everyone took their first bite of pie and the exclamations were immediate.

"Oh man, that is good," Dylan said, quickly taking another bite of Snickerdoodle Pie.

"Wow," Steve said after trying the Pineapple Pie. He wiped a bit of glaze from the corner of his mouth with his thumb and licked it off. "That is excellent."

"Mm, they're both so good," Deb said.

"I don't know if I can choose!" Grace agreed.

"What do you think, Cousin Angie?" Joan asked. "Are they good?"

"Num!" Angie said, raising her fork high as Mary held her plate.

Danny leaned over to tease Aaron. "You know putting that vile fruit in a pie is going to cost you points from yours truly."

Aaron grinned. "It was a risk, I know, but I'm confident the overall effect will be enough to win you over."

"I wouldn't put money on that."

Despite his protests, Danny took a forkful of the Pineapple Pie and chewed slowly.

"Joan, look at that," Mary said pointedly. "Uncle Danny doesn't like pineapple but he still gave it a try."

Joan looked up at him expectantly. "Isn't it yummy?"

"I'm not gonna go that far," he said truthfully, "but the cream cheese helps."

"Hey, DJ, aren't you going to try them?" Jacob asked.

"Yeah, all the other bakers and assistants are eating," Dylan said.

Casey chuckled. "Especially the smallest assistant over there." She nodded to Angie who had abandoned her fork entirely and was eating her pies by the handful.

DJ looked around, catching Steve and Catherine's eyes. Catherine smiled warmly. "Go ahead, honey. Taste what a good job you all did baking."

With a small smile, he picked up his fork and took a bite of the Pineapple Pie.

"Well?" Aaron asked, kneeling down next to him and smiling. "What do you think?"

"It's so good!" he said around the bite, eyes bright and smile wide.

Aaron beamed. "Yes! Go Team Pineapple!" He held out a hand for a high five which DJ happily gave.

"Now try the Snickerdoodle!" Joan cried.

"Okay," DJ said, and took a forkful of the other pie. "Ohh yum! That's so good, too!"

Joan clapped excitedly. "Yes!"

"Given how many clean plates I see around here," Elizabeth said, "I think everyone has had a chance to try both."

"Time to vote!" Jacob said.

"We didn't do a blind test this time," Kaitlyn said. "You all know who made each pie. But you really have to vote for which one you like the best, okay? Don't worry, we won't have hurt feelings, right, Aaron?"

"Right," he agreed.

"Okay," Kaitlyn continued. "Raise your hand if you like the Pineapple Pie the best."

Steve, Catherine, Casey, Dylan, Elizabeth, Joseph, and Deb raised their hands.

"Yay!" Angie clapped, both hands in the air.

"And who likes the Snickerdoodle Pie the best?" Aaron asked.

Danny, Grace, Jenna, Cody, Jacob, Mary, and Grandma Ang put their hands in the air.

"Yay!" Angie clapped again.

"Uh oh," Kaitlyn said. "I think it's a tie."

"I'm getting a sense of déjà vu here," Danny said.

"Oh yes," Elizabeth said. "The first bakeoff with the cupcakes was a tie."

"Broken by Joan," Cody added.

Joan beamed. "Daddy told me that when we were baking! I was Angie's age! I liked all the cupcakes but I said the marshmallow one was the nummiest."

"Well, looks like we're relying on the toddler vote again," Mary said, bouncing Angie in her lap.

"What do you think, baby girl?" Catherine said. "Which one of those pies did you like the most?"

"Wike pies nummy!" Angie said, nodding emphatically.

"Which one was the best?" Steve asked. "Pineapple or Snickerdoodle?"

"Pi'a'pul 'nickerdoo'!" she said, beaming.

DJ laughed. "She said them both."

"She sure did," Joseph agreed. "You know what? It might be a little unusual in this particular family, but I'm going to pull rank here and declare this bakeoff … a tie!"

Joan and DJ gasped and looked at each other.

"A tie!" Joan exclaimed. "That's the best!"

"Yeah!" DJ agreed.

"Congratulations to both our bakers _and_ to their assistants," Elizabeth said. "Thank you for making these delicious desserts."

Cheers and applause rang out across the deck. Angie smiled broadly at the sound, lending her own claps and "Yay!" to the joyful cacophony.

"Congrats on another awesome bakeoff, Master Kaitlyn," Aaron said, holding out a hand to shake.

Kaitlyn grinned, shaking it and then wrapping her arms around him in a hug. "Right back at you, Master Aaron."

"And you two," Aaron continued, turning to Joan and DJ, "best assistants ever!" He held both his hands out for high fives. After smacking his hand enthusiastically, Joan flung herself around his waist, hugging him tightly. DJ hesitated for only a moment, then hugged his other side.

Looking on, Steve and Catherine shared a smile, Catherine blinking back tears at the sight.

"That was so much fun!" Joan said, grabbing Kaitlyn's hands and jumping up and down.

"It was," Kaitlyn agreed. "We'll have to do that again real soon."

"Can we?" DJ asked hopefully, looking first at Aaron and then back at Steve and Catherine.

Steve bit back the words he really wanted to say, and smiled. "I've got a feeling we absolutely will."

* * *

**Hope you enjoyed!**

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